LeoVegas has pronounced itself satisfied with performance in the newly re-regulated market in Sweden, while admitting to facing a “challenging” environment in the UK.
The gaming group’s overall revenue increased by 12 per cent to €86.3m in Q1 2019. Organic growth in local currencies outside the UK standing at 19 per cent, but when including the UK it dropped to four per cent.
EBITDA stood at €7.2m (€9.5m), corresponding to an EBITDA margin on 8.3 per cent (12.3 per cent), NGR from regulated markets formed 50 per cent (35 per cent) of total NGR and depositing customers increased in number by 23 per cent to 370,000.
LeoVegas group CEO Gustaf Hagman said: “During the first quarter we once again delivered sequential growth and posted record performance on a number of key performance indicators. This, combined with the fact that our customer base is growing in a sound and sustainable way, has given us a good start to 2019.
“We are maintaining a high pace of expansion and innovation at the same time as we are focusing on cost efficiency and scalability in the group. This makes us well positioned for a year of continued profitable growth.
“Sweden has now been regulated for a quarter. We are generally satisfied with our performance during the period, where we had record-high customer activity and believe to have taken market shares. Our organic revenue decreased by 16 per cent during the first quarter, adjusted for currency movements, partly owing to short-term effects of the market’s regulation in January. At the same time our depositing customer base grew 23 per cent compared with the same period a year ago. Revenue in Sweden during the quarter has been growing month on month, and this trend has continued into the second quarter.
“The new regulation in Sweden entailed a number of changes for our customers and for the industry, resulting in short- as well as long-term effects.
“The UK market remains challenging in the near term, but we are gradually making progress, and our customer acquisition is growing at Group level compared with the preceding quarter.”
